News channel 7 WKBW featured The Bob McCarthy Foundation in a story!

See it here: https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/southern-tier/we-provide-a-quiet-helping-hand-the-bob-mccarthy-foundation-continues-its-legacy-of-giving-in-ellicottville

 

Click here to see all the ways that we help!

 

The Bob McCarthy Foundation 2025

Our 501c3 charitable foundation is dedicated to acting as a bridge between families and supportive assistance while trying to level the playing field for many in our community.  Our Foundation continues to focus precisely on our mandate while streamlining our efforts and expanding community involvement.  We are now able to react quickly to an identified need within the community bringing solutions that other agencies cannot do in real time.

For those of you who don’t know, the Foundation is over 19 years old with our roots coming from two other support groups with a long history of assistance in Ellicottville.  The Foundation was chartered in 2005 while in 2008 a critical local support group, the Family Support Center at ECS closed and almost simultaneously, the local Salvation Army group disbanded as well.

With the hole created by these closures a number of local volunteers including the late Sherman Wilkens, stepped forward to fill the void by establishing a Family Support affiliate with the mission to confidentially provide help and guidance to those in need, while trying to structure help to be self-sustaining.

Over the years we conducted numerous fundraisers many created by the “Mad” genius of the Voice of Ellicottville, Bob McCarthy.  Bob a long-term teacher of Special Ed students in Buffalo and a ski coach in Ellicottville moved to Ellicottville, his winter home, after retirement.  Bob’s fun fundraisers like Celtic Thunder, Americana Folk Art & Music Fair, Farm Fest, Snowboard Auction, Another Day in Paradise, Tuscan Moon and many more continue to be that of local lore.

Bob’s most recognized event, Irish Christmas was started to provide funding for Family Support’s “Santa’s Workshop” helping families at Christmas.  After his passing in June of 2016 the Foundation, renamed this wonderful evening “Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas”.  This event happening on December 5th at EBC, now provides the bulk of the funding for most of the Foundation’s work.   We continue to ensure that 100% of the donations that are made go back into the Ellicottville community without any administrative costs as we remain a completely volunteer organization.

In 2024 our Foundation established the Medical Loan Center in the heart of Ellicottville in partnership with Interfaith Caregivers.  This loan center provides a wide assortment of medical hardware and supplies to anyone who is in need.  From hospital beds to colostomy supplies, the Loan center has become a blessing to those undergoing a temporary or long term health issue.

Although this community is blessed with good fortune, many families struggle providing basic needs in the home. These difficulties put a strain on family finances, emotions, health and schedules. Therefore, families may require some extra patience and understanding while certain issues are worked through and hopefully healed.  The Foundation focuses on identifying the needs through the school and other agencies in tune with the issues that families face.

From this we support many varied programs like:

  • Student Backpacks and supplies every school year
  • Santa’s Workshop – helping famiies have a better holiday season
  • “Shop with a Cop” program with ECS
  • Hearing and vision support for those in need
  • Quarterly support for the local Ellicottville food pantry
  • Support for families who cannot pay for heat, food or clothing
  • Help for victims of acts of God and ongoing health issues
  • Summer educational programs – “Summer reading” & “Stem Training” programs
  • Ellicottville Library Summer Intern program
  • Annual ECS & BOCES Scholarships
  • Support of the Domestic Violence & Rape Crisis center
  • Support for many individual students to help level the playing field financially
  • Many more

Our only means of finance are from fundraisers, donation boxes in local business and individual donations with the bulk coming via donations at Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas.  In all our generous community gives back in incredible ways.

We are excited about our new help programs and look forward to continued work in the community.  We continue to reach out and invite your input and invite you to join us in our mission.

In 2026 we plan to expand our Ellicottville specific Seniors program beyond the loan center and medical transportation.

Please feel free to contact anyone on our Board of Directors for information on any of our programs or how you might help.

Thanks to our wonderful community.

Bob McCarthy Foundation Board of Directors:

Katy Arena
Greg Cappelli
Kathleen Moriarty
Anne Northrup